Combatant in an octagon-shaped cage / WED 2-25-26 / So-called "melting pot," in brief / Tribal home, maybe, informally / Tick doc / ___ hair (edgy 2000s trend)

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: BREAKDANCES (60A: Emulates the three figures in this puzzle ... or what the figures do within the answers to 17-, 27- and 46-Across?) — each theme answer features a little breakdancer in the shape of a letter; these human-shaped "letters" appear inside (i.e. "break") the names of "dances" (found in shaded squares inside the theme answers). Thus the the little breakdancers "BREAK DANCES":

Theme answers (blue letters represent the little breakdancing figures, red letters spell out the dances):

• CREDI[T] SCORE (17A: Failing to pay bills on time may affect this)
• VINCENT [V]AN GOGH (27A: "Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear" painter, 1889)
• HANNIBAL LE[C]TER (46A: Villain ranked #1 on A.F.I.'s "100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains" list)

Word of the Day: Steven YEUN (57D: Actor Steven of "Beef" and "Nope") —

Sang-yeop Yeun (Korean: 연상엽; born December 21, 1983), known professionally as Steven Yeun (/jʌn/ YUHN), is an American actor. He rose to prominence for playing Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead (2010–2016). He earned critical acclaim for the films Burning (2018) and Minari (2020). For the latter, he became the first East Asian-American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. For the Netflix dark comedy series Beef (2023), which he produced and starred in, Yeun received Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actor.

Yeun has also appeared in the films Okja (2017), Sorry to Bother You (2018), The Humans (2021), and Nope (2022). He has also voiced main characters in animated television series such as Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016–2018), Tales of Arcadia (2016–2021), Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters (2017–2018), Final Space (2018–2021), Tuca & Bertie (2019–2022), and Invincible (2021–present). (wikipedia)

• • •

The only thing keeping this puzzle from four-and-a-half stars is the fact that the breakdancing letters themselves are meaningless. That is, they're random letters. They don't spell anything or have any significance beyond their shape. That said, these are probably the three letters of the alphabet that most closely resemble breakdancer positions (try making yourself into an "H," for example—actually, esp. if you're over 50, definitely do not try this). The first two breakdancer-letters (the "T" and "V") make a nice sequence—handstand into a backspin. I can definitely see that happening, breakdancing-wise. That "C" is iffier, though. Whatever that little dude is doing to make himself a "C" seems the least "breakdancey" of these figures. So the breakdancer-letters have no larger significance and one of them seems more contrived (from a visual standpoint) than the others. Beyond that, though, this theme is kinda brilliant. Little dancers inside dances inside longer answers! Extreme nesting! And the dances are all solid, familiar, recognizable, and they touch every element in the overall theme answers. That is, every word in every themer is part of a dance—no words left hanging. That is how you do "hidden word" themes. The rest of the puzzle had its strengths and weaknesses. It's a very choppy grid with maybe more than its share of repeaters (NENE IKEA SSNS INRE ADE ORA EKED etc etc), but the clues were far more interesting than normal, and the theme was so strong that I didn't care so much about the weaknesses in the fill. I'm not normally a big fan of picture gimmicks in my puzzle, but this one is truly inventive, and from a craftsmanship standpoint, it's very solid. Ambitious and well executed. I had a good time.

I was entertained from the very first clue. 1A: [Taps casino table] is a fantastic (visual! audio!) clue for "HIT ME." There just seemed to be more color and pizzazz than usual in the clues today. More "?" clues. More details. The theme answers themselves were inherently interesting—well, not CREDIT SCORE, no one likes thinking about CREDIT SCOREs, but the others, for sure. I never saw the clue for either Van Gogh or Lecter—I really do work the short stuff first, since that tends to be higher-percentage (easier to get at first glance than longer stuff), and sometimes, by the time I even consider looking at the clue for a longer answer, I've already got enough letters in place to infer it. With HANNIBAL LECTER, I had the end worked out and the letter combo was so unusual that HANNIBAL LECTER was the only answer that made sense. Coincidentally, after the death of actor Tom Noonan last week, I watched the fantastic Michael Mann movie Manhunter (1986), in which Brian Cox (of Succession fame) plays ... HANNIBAL LECTER! A good five years before Hopkins! It's a bit part, but he's very good. Tom Noonan plays the main serial killer in the film, and he is extraordinary. 

[Cox]

[Noonan]

The puzzle was very easy, but that didn't bother me so much today, since the easiness allowed the theme to unfold and pop in a fast, energetic way, which seemed appropriate. Who wants a breakdancing puzzle to be a slog? There were only two answers that gave me any trouble. One is embarrassing: I have seen and enjoyed many Steven YEUN movies, but when I read his clue (57D: Actor Steven of "Beef" and "Nope"), I had the "YE-" in place and reflexively wrote in YEOH—a different actor altogether. Wrong ethnicity, wrong gender, wrong wrong wrong. Bah. My (extreme) bad. The other hold-up I don't feel nearly so bad about. CMD!? Is that short for "Command?" Yeesh, that is ... not pretty. Astonishingly, this abbr. was used only twice in the pre-Shortz era, but has (comparatively) flourished under Shortz, almost always with the same boring clue: today's clue: [Mil. authority] (16 appearances under Shortz, 10 of them with this clue, zzzz). This is the first appearance of CMD in ten years! It can go back into retirement now, I won't mind. Anyway, I spun out a bit on DOD today. I had the "D" in place and wrote in DOD (Dept. of Defense). That's a "Mil. authority," isn't it? 

Bullets:

• 11A: ___ hair (edgy 2000s trend) (EMO) — got EMO easy even though I can't really tell you what this hair looks like. I'm picturing Bill Hader as Stefan on SNL, but Stefan wasn't exactly EMO:

• 33A: Tribal home, maybe, informally (REZ) — a perfectly good answer (short for "Reservation"), but "maybe, informally" felt like one qualifier too many.
• 35A: So-called "melting pot," in brief (U.S.A.) — enjoying the shade this puzzle is throwing around today with "So-called." See also the clue on MADONNA (4D: So-called "Queen of Pop"). I've heard Michael Jackson called the "King of Pop," but this "Queen of Pop" moniker is less familiar to me, which is strange, as I grew up in peak Madonna Times, and even saw her in concert in Minneapolis a couple years ago.

• 30D: Tick doc (VET) — I was not aware that VETs treated arachnids. (Seriously, what is happening here? You take your dog to the vet when he gets ticks? Is that it?) (wait, is this a "Tik Tok" pun???) 😦
• 12D: Combatant in an octagon-shaped cage (MMA FIGHTER) — not a fan of MMA, but am a fan of this answer, which is bright and original and (most importantly) helped me figure out CMD.
• 11D: Sound-track? (ECHOLOCATE) — good answer, great clue. That NE corner really hums. I will say that even though CMD sucks, it is holding together the best part of the puzzle—which is the only reason cruddy fill should ever show its face.
• 29D: Cyber punk? (TROLL) — nice wordplay—reimagining the literary genre (cyberpunk) as an actual punk (i.e. asshole) online. Good stuff. I also like 37D: Bear's heirs? for CUBS. No real wordplay at work there, just a funny little rhyming clue. It's nice for easy clues to have a little personality sometimes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Yellowish color for old computer graphics / TUE 2-24-26 / Tiny swine / Brew that's a little cloudy and fruity / Utter rubbish / President of China beginning in 2013 / Supermodel Hadid

Constructor: Adam Aaronson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)

THEME: e.g. — every theme clue ends with "e.g.," and every theme answer has the initials "E.G.":

Theme answers:

• ETHNIC GROUP (17A: Nuyoricans, e.g.)
• ELECTRIC GUITAR (24A: Fender Strato caster, e.g.)
• EL GRECO (36A: "The Disrobing of Christ," e.g.)
• ENDOCRINE GLAND (50A: Thyroid, e.g.)
• EVENING GOWN (59A: Dress for a soirée, e.g.)

Word of the Day: Nuyoricans (see 17A) — 

Nuyorican is a portmanteau word blending "New York" (or "Nueva York" in Spanish) and "Puerto Rican," referring to Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, their culture, or their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the New York metropolitan area). This term is sometimes used for Puerto Ricans living in other areas in the Northeastern US Mainland outside New York State as well. The term is also used by Islander Puerto Ricans (Puerto Ricans from Puerto Rico) to differentiate those of Puerto Rican descent from the Puerto Rico-born. (wikipedia)

• • •

Feels like it's been a while since I thought the editors misjudged the level of difficulty in this direction—that is, since a puzzle felt harder than average for its day of the week. But this one, yeah, this one felt like a Wednesday, for sure. Spelling XI JINPING alone was a total adventure (31D: President of China beginning in 2013), then there was the toughish (for me) clues on EL GRECO and AMBER (I had OCHER (?)) (6A: Yellowish color for old computer graphics) and BOO (8D: Honeybun) (so many three-letter "Honeybun"s out there), and then the supermodel I don't know (GIGI), the ARM/AIM thing (43A / 33D: Asset for a thrower), the WHEAT part of WHEAT BEER. All of this was gettable, it just took more time than most Tuesdays take. More "what?," more hacking around until the letters fell into place. And it didn't just take more time to solve—it also took more time for me to understand the theme. Not a ton of time, just ... some. At the end, I could see that all the themers had "E.G." as their initials, but ... why? I kept looking for a revealer, but ... nothing. "E.g., e.g., where would you put the 'e.g.' in a puzzle like this?" Well, duh. The clues. I had not noticed that every clue ended in e.g. because crossword clues end in e.g. all the time—it's not a distinctive feature. So that little twist—turning a perfectly ordinary clue element into a theme element—was surprising. Clever. Again, more characteristic of later week puzzles. But I appreciated the "oh!" moment. 

'Mainly I was just relieved that there was a revealer (of a sort). Because before that, I was thinking "uh ... just having E.G. initials is not enough. Not themeworthy." The cluing conceit gives the E.G. stuff purpose. It's a neat little trick. During the solve, my ideas about what the theme might be were all over the map. At first, I noticed that both ETHNIC GROUP and ELECTRIC GUITAR feature an "ICG" letter string broken across their two words. But then EL GRECO broke up that pattern. By the time I got ENDOCRINE GLAND, I was like "is there 'CRINGE' in every answer? Anagrammed? For some reason?" But no, that didn't check out either. I don't necessarily enjoy fumbling around like that, but I did think it was kinda cute the way the "e.g." in the theme clues was eventually like "hey, hey there ... you missed me. I'm right in front of your damned face."

The fill today wasn't really on my wavelength or in my pleasure zone (... sorry, that sounds erotic, I won't ever say it again ...), but at least it's not dull. I don't really know what a MINIPIG is (46A: Tiny swine). I assume it's a small pig. Maybe a pet? I also hate / never hear the term AUTOBIO (30A: Self-written life story, informally). Just say the word, yeesh. Maybe it's a written and not a spoken thing? Neither of these "words" is really my thing, but I see them trying, and I appreciate the effort, esp. on a Tuesday. The fill was not promising right out of the gate—any time I stop to take a picture of the NW corner, that is a bad sign. A sign that the fill annoyed me so much I needed to document it:

I'd recommend that if you have a particularly rough corner in your grid, you not call attention to the problem by literally labeling it DRECK (1A: Utter rubbish). Looking at it now, it doesn't seem so bad, but DMED and RETIE back-to-back set my "no, make it stop" alarm off early. Once I got momentum going, the uglier stuff (your ENTs and your laugh syllables and your PCHELP, etc.) didn't bug me as much because I blew right through it. There's something kind of ugly about the mash-up of EVEVEVEVE material in the south. EVE crossing EVENING crossing VEE crossing LEVEE (crossing LEVIES!!!?). Need some air down there. Way too same same (same same same). But the rest of the grid is lively and varied. This is one of those puzzles that wasn't really for me, but seemed well made overall. My gut said three stars, but my head was like "it's probably a little better than that, you should bump it? If only for being a little weird and kinda hard, you should bump it." So I bumped it.

Bullets:

• 36A: "The Disrobing of Christ," e.g. (EL GRECO) — using the artist's name as a descriptor of their work is completely conventional ("Is that a PICASSO!?"), but I was still expecting a general category here (like, I dunno, OIL PAINTING).

• 11D: Brew that's a little cloudy and fruity (WHEAT BEER) — I think the "fruity" part threw me. I didn't know that about WHEAT BEER. Of all the things that are "fruity" in this world, I'm not sure I would've placed WHEAT in that category. The "fruity" had me thinking "sour," but SOUR BEER wouldn't fit.
• 6A: Yellowish color for old computer graphics (AMBER) — as I said earlier, my first guess here was OCHER. What I did not say earlier: after MARDI gras forced OCHER out, my next move was not AMBER. It was UMBER. I don't even really remember what color UMBER is. I just remember the name from the "Burnt UMBER" crayon color among my Crayola crayons when I was a kid. Burnt umber is reddish. Straight up UMBER is pretty brown. If you squint and wish real hard, you can kinda see "yellowish" in there, but nah, it's pretty brown.

• 15A: Actress Watts of "The Friend" (NAOMI) — Easy (what other "Actress Watts" is there?) but my first response was "That's a strange way to clue her. What the hell movie is that?" Then I remembered: it's the NAOMI Watts / Bill Murray / Great Dane movie from a couple of years back that I really meant to see and never did. Read a whole (fascinating) article about that dog, and what it took to cast the dog and care for the dog during filming, etc. It was in the New Yorker, I think. (Yep, here it is). Really made me want to see the movie. And then I didn't. I hate when that happens. Guess I'll watch it now. On to the Letterboxd Watchlist it goes!

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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